Various types of portable staging and flooring systems exist for providing temporary platforms. These temporary platforms are usually intended to serve as stages or stage extensions for theatrical or musical events, or as elevated floors or platforms above the permanent floor of an indoor facility or above the ground outside.
Most prior art portable staging and flooring systems fall into one of three categories--unitary portable platforms, collapsible portable platforms and assembled portable platforms. Unitary portable platforms are typically comprised of a single permanently assembled structure that folds together and includes a set of wheels to transport the unit, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,949,649 and 4,917,217. Collapsible portable platforms are typically comprised of multiple permanently assembled structures that can be interconnected as an arrangement of separate free-standing units, each of which is designed to collapse for easy storage and transportation, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,353. Assembled portable platforms, on the other hand, are comprised of many separate components that are temporarily assembled together, as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,930,277, 4,988,131 and 4,638,604. Although unitary portable platforms are typically simple to assemble and easily transported, they are usually very limited in the amount of platform space that is provided and in the manner in which that space is arranged. In contrast, collapsible portable platforms and assembled portable platforms can typically be arranged to provide larger areas of platform space configured in a variety of different floor plan arrangements.
Unfortunately, current collapsible portable stages and floors and assembled portable stages and floors have several problems that detract from their ease of installation and use, and limit their effectiveness under certain situations. In particular, current portable platforms are not well suited for heavy duty usage. Existing portable platforms have a difficult time providing sturdy and stable platforms that are capable of supporting heavy equipment or withstanding significant vibrational energy, as may be encountered, for example, in staging a rock concert. Those portable stages and floors that can support heavy duty usage often require mechanical assistance in transporting some of the various components of the system, as well as a crew of skilled technicians in order to assemble a large variety of sometimes complicated components. Finally, the adaptability of current portable stages and floors to complicated floor plans is limited, and significant planning and preparation may be required in order to accommodate multi-level platform areas of a variety of floor plan arrangements.
In the case of collapsible portable stages and floors, these problems are difficult to overcome because of the structural limitations imposed on the size and weight of each of the separate free-standing units. In order to support heavy duty usage, a certain mass of support material is required. When this amount of support material is built into each free-standing unit, however, the overall weight of the free-standing units quickly surpasses the desired weight for a truly portable staging and flooring system.
The major problem with current assembled portable stages and floors is that proper assembly of the portable platform is not easy, either in terms of planning the flooring arrangement, or in terms of assembling and disassembling the system. The tools and expertise necessary to assemble such staging and flooring systems can be considerable. With the advent of stricter governmental standards for these types of structures in terms of safety and accessibility by the disabled, the design and construction of such assembled portable stages and floors can require significant effort from both engineers and professional construction workers.
Although current portable staging and flooring systems are useful in many situations where temporary platforms are required, it would be desirable to provide a portable staging and flooring system that could overcome the limitations and problems of current portable systems. Moreover, it would be advantageous to provide a portable staging and flooring system that is well suited for heavy-duty usage, and is also easily adaptable to a wide variety of platform designs, while at the same time being simple to transport, assemble and disassemble.